Stars

This band were being mentioned in the same sentences as their Canuck peers Arcade Fire and the Besnard Lakes et al, so I struck while the iron was hot and went along. Unfortunately for them, despite some good tunes, that iron cooled pretty quickly, despite my cheesy ending line…

Date: February 2, 2008

Venue: Rescue Rooms

One can only assume there must be something in the water in Canada. A current crop of Canadian bands are effortlessly making startling music, with the likes of Arcade Fire, Metric, The Besnard Lakes and many more giving our own music scene a run for its money.

Fittingly, then, Canuck five piece Stars step into the Rescue Rooms with an arsenal of effervescent indie pop tunes which sound like Belle and Sebastian running amok through a school playground chased all the way by The Shins on a diet of Ritalin-based cocktails.

And if that sounds a little too sweet to digest do not despair: it exists on the right side of the line which separates brilliant pop from exaggerated cheesy drivel where The Feeling happily nestle with Mika. And in any case no band should be lambasted for attempting to make fun and chest-beatingly good pop music.

So with their credentials intact, they set out to quieten the Saturday chatter boxes that have populated the crowd with a setlist dripping with charm and sassiness.

Songs like The Night Starts Here and Take Me To The Riot quickly tighten the mouths of the non-plussed punters, while grown men are reduced to tears during the plaintive melodica and piano combination of Barricade, which vividly displays frontman Torquil Campbell’s catharsis.

Similarly, as silky-voiced co-singer Amy Millen comes to the fore on Personal we’ve clearly gate crashed an intimate region of her sobriety and it’s brilliantly spellbinding.

So once again Canada has delivered and Stars look like they have a bright future.